


some secrets she's better at keeping than others (and she's held onto this one for a while now)

by deceptivelycomplex3925



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 08:30:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4557729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deceptivelycomplex3925/pseuds/deceptivelycomplex3925
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deleted scene from 'always known'. Snow's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	some secrets she's better at keeping than others (and she's held onto this one for a while now)

**Author's Note:**

> So I guess this is sort of like a deleted scene? Or maybe an alternate one? Idk. 
> 
> I was sifting through my notes app on my phone (because I can't sleep and I get really OCD and want to organize and delete things when I have too much time on my hands) and found this little nugget. 
> 
> I'd forgotten I'd written it. It's very rough and I'm pretty sure I left it out because it's so terrible (and I didn't want to have so many different POVs in it) but I just re read it and figured hey, it's kind of fluffy so why not. 
> 
> If you haven't read always known I feel like you can still follow along with what's going on. 
> 
> So yeah. Enjoy!

Everyone thinks she can't keep a secret.

Everyone thinks if they tell her something, she'll have it spread around town before the day's even out.

And okay, _yes_ she kind of told a secret that was the impetus for the creation of a certain Evil Queen and curses and -

She was _ten_.

She had also just wanted to _help_. A small detail that seems to always be forgotten.

Well, she's...not ten anymore.

She's a mother of two and a wife and a former bandit. A leader as well. A ruler.

Rulers are very capable of keeping secrets.

As are mothers and wives and former bandits.

And she's kept this particular secret for almost two years.

David doesn't even know.

At least she thinks he doesn't. He's never shown any signs that he sees what she sees, so she really thinks he doesn't.

Snow knows though. Snow also knows that Emma's figured it out too.

She'd been feeding Neal when Emma'd come by.

She was sulking, her shoulders drooping and her eyebrows permanently knit together, a frown on her face.

It looked like she'd been crying.

She didn't comment on that. She instead made Emma some hot cocoa with cinnamon and proceeded to ask about work.

She'd received a shrug and a mumbled response.

So not work.

She'd asked about Henry.

She gotten a smile out of that one. It was small, but still there.

Definitely not Henry. She hadn't thought it was him to begin with. Or work.

She knew who it was.

Regina. Because these days it was always Regina.

And when she'd finally asked about her Emma's shoulders had tensed and her jaw had tightened.

And when she'd tried to get a little bit more out of her she had stood abruptly with a curt "thanks for the cocoa" and left.

Snow had blinked, mouth parted in surprise.

Something had happened between them then.

That was yesterday evening.

She picks up her phone and presses 2, holds it down.

Emma's name lights up her screen. She answers on the third ring.

"Hey, Mom, what's up?"

Snow sifts through her fridge, making a mental list in her head of ingredients she needs.

"Hi, sweetheart, do you like walnuts?"

There's a beat of silence.

"They're...alright I guess. Did you call just to ask me that?"

Banana bread for dessert then. She eyeballs the five or six bananas starting to brown on the counter.

"Wonderful. We're having a family dinner tomorrow night. You don't have to work, right?"

She distinctly remembers overhearing Will at Granny's griping about having to work the night shift Friday.

"Uh...yeah, no, I'm off - we're having a family dinner...all of us?"

She hears the underlying question.

"Regina declined my offer. So just you, Henry, David, Neal, and I."

She feels a tug of guilt at lying to her daughter. But it's for her best interest. For her heart.

She hears Emma let out a breath. Her voice is decidedly more relaxed when she responds.

"Oh, well, that's..." She clears her throat. "Do I need to bring anything?"

Snow pads over to Neal's crib and brushes her finger down his nose, smiling.

"Nope, just make sure you and Henry come hungry."

 

* * *

 

So she might not have thought this all the way through.

She'd gotten Regina to accept using Henry as leverage.

She'd gotten Emma to accept through a lie.

And now they're all at the dining room table being almost swallowed whole by silence.

Tension-filled silence. _Tangible_ tension-filled silence.

Her and David are at the ends with Henry and Regina on one side, Emma on the other.

Everyone's looking at their plates.

Shuffling food. Scowling at it. Picking at it daintily. David's the only one wolfing it down.

He glances up at her and she motions her head toward the table, raising her eyebrows.

He looks to the two sides of the table and clears his throat.

All eyes move to him.

"So, Henry...how's school going?"

His eyes dart back to Snow's and she gives him an incredulous look.

_Really, Charming?_

He shrugs helplessly and turns his attention back to Henry who shuffles his chicken around with his carrots and shrugs as well.

"It's school. Lots of homework. No breaks. No gameboy."

He spears a carrot at the last sentence and Regina gives him a reproachful side eye.

He grumbles and she thinks she hears something along the lines of "just trying to help".

Snow frowns, confused.

Regina clears her throat and her eyes flick across the table to Emma before finding her own.

"This is wonderful Snow, a recipe of yours?"

And she knows whatever has happened between Emma and Regina is much bigger than she had originally thought if Regina is complimenting her on _food_. She _made_.

"No, actually. I bought a cookbook the other day. Someone by the name of Rachel Ray?"

Regina nods her head, doing a poor job of seeming interested.

Emma won't look up from her plate. David's helping himself to seconds.

"Emma, would you mind getting the banana bread from the island?"

Emma's head snaps up and she looks completely dazed for a moment before she nods and scoots her chair back.

Snow watches Regina's eyes track Emma's back. Snow's head tilts.

She sees Henry watching her too.

She quirks an eyebrow. Does Henry know as well?

Hm.

Emma sets the cooling rack with the loaf of banana bread in the center of the table. Her eyes find Regina's over it before darting back to her plate. Regina's do the same.

My god, they're _ridiculous_.

Neal starts to fuss and she stands, moving to pick him up, abandoning her original plan for a new one.

She needs to know if and what Henry knows.

"Henry, would you mind helping me with this?"

He looks at her like she's just asked him to burn all of his comic books one by one.

She gives him what she hopes is a convincing warm smile.

"It could be a good learning experience," her voice is saccharine. Totally not suspicious at all.

He scrunches his face before looking back to Regina then Emma (still very much avoiding each other's gaze) and nodding his head.

"Yeah, sure."

She makes sure the door is closed behind her before she speaks.

She lays Neal down on the changing table.

"You know don't you?"

He doesn't respond so she turns to find him wide-eyed and too tall, gangly. He's growing up so fast.

"Uh, what?"

She smiles again, Neal's face contorting into one of discomfort as she cleans him with a baby wipe before putting on the fresh diaper.

"Your mothers. You know too, don't you?"

She picks Neal up and turns to face Henry, who's taken a step forward and is whispering now, his eyes shooting to the closed door.

"Wait, _you know_!?"

"I'm starting to think everyone knows."

He snorts. "Yeah, but they're both being really stupid about it," he says, rolling his eyes.

Snow rocks back and forth on the balls of her feet gently, brow furrowing.

"What do you mean?"

He sighs then, sounding far too exasperated for his age.

"They're both in love with each other and they're making it way more complicated than it actually is."

"Well, Henry, I mean your mother is still with another man so it's -"

"No she's not."

Snow stops rocking. This is news to her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"She broke up with Robin a few days ago."

"How do you - and she hasn't told - does Emma know?"

Henry shakes his head, sighing again.

"Mom says Emma won't answer her calls." He rolls his eyes again looking like said mother and shifts his feet. "I told her to just go to her apartment but she said 'that'd be an invasion of her privacy'." He curves his fingers into air quotes, looking wholly unimpressed with the words.

Snow is too.

"So do they both know how the other feels?"

"Yeah...well, Mom knows how Emma feels. I saw them. Ma told Mom she loved her and then they hugged. But Mom -"

"Wait, wait - they _hugged_?"

How did she not know this?!

Henry nods, eyes dancing at being able to talk to someone about this.

"Yeah, and it was outside of Granny's too. Sunday."

Snow gasps and Henry nods his head again, smile ratcheting up about five notches, looking like the Cheshire Cat.

"I know, right!?"

"Did your mother say it back?"

Henry frowns then, mood turning somber.

"No, I told her to though. The night after I saw them hug. And I called Emma and kind of lied and told her Mom was crying in the bathroom and wouldn't come out unless she came over...and apparently it worked. But I don't know what happened. I fell asleep."

He seems perturbed at himself about that.

"And then when I woke up Mom was downstairs. She made me French toast and then grounded me for two weeks. She said 'I know your intentions were in the right place, sweetie, but Emma was very upset and you shouldn't have lied to her.'"

He throws his hands up before they slap back down against his jean-clad thighs.

"They're so difficult! I was just trying to help and I get grounded for it!"

Snow nods, agreeing.

"Well, we'll both just have to help them, then."

Henry's eyes alight, a softer grin forming on his lips.

"Really?"

Snow feels her lips form a smile of her own.

"Really."

"Operation Parent Trap?"

"Operation Parent Trap," Snow nods, resting a hand on Henry's arm. "So, any ideas?"

He grins, mischievous now, an almost perfectly balanced mixture of his two mothers.

"Oh yeah."


End file.
